MISHICOT (NBC26) — Joe Broome never expected this massive water bill that totaled thousands of dollars.
- Joe Broome had a faulty water filter that dumped 678,000 gallons of water in the sewer.
- After a push back the water filter company decided to pay the thousands of dollars in loss.
- The City of Mishicot decided to drop the cost from $10,000 down to $3,000.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
When a Mishicot couple got hit with a massive water bill, they were shocked. I spoke with the man who was staring down a $10,000 water bill after a faulty filter dumped enough water into the sewer to fill this pool more than 30 times.
"I got a phone call,” said Mishicot resident Joe Broome. “It showed up on my phone as Mishicot Police and I thought why are they calling me? I thought it was a prank call.”
A prank call would've been better for Joe, Mishicot told him he had a water leak and they traced it to his Culligan water filter.
"It was just dumping water straight down into the sewer,” Broome explained. “It turned out to be, according to the city, about 8,000 gallons a day it was dumping."
That's a lot of water! An average pool holds 20,000 gallons, an Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 660,000 thousand gallons and Joe's leak would've overflowed one … dumping 678,000 gallons of water.
"I was like, I couldn't believe that it was using that much water,” said Broome.
Joe says the city billed him $10,000 but agreed to drop the total to about $3,000 after he claimed a faulty water filter was to blame.
Joe didn't want to pay but he says Culligan told him he was responsible because he should've heard the water running.
"What do I do? Do I sue 'em? What do I do?” Broome wondered.
I reached out to the City of Mishicot to ask about the bill but haven't heard back.
I also spoke to the co-owner of the Culligan shop on Wednesday morning, who told me he'd be calling Joe. Not long after, I met Joe at his home and he told me Culligan had decided to pay the bill.
"It's a huge relief because, you know, I can't really afford to pay a $3,000 water bill,” said Broome.
Culligan told me they'd rather pay the bill than lose Joe as a customer.
"You never think it's going to happen to you,” Broome says. “I've heard stories about people having huge water bills for various things but you never think it'll happen here."
Culligan says to have a service member out regularly and check the system on your own. It may be worth a quick stop at your own water filter to avoid a water bill horror story of your own.
